If you've been wondering why my emission of prose has diminished, it isn't because I'm out of ideas, time, or energy. It's because I also like writing music. And since I so love the music of the 1940s, and have been writing and collecting forties-style songs for a while, I decided to make use of the creative freedom I have with certain AI models to create a music video. This wasn't my first ever attempt—ask my daughter Dorothy about that Footloose video in the '80s—but it's the first one I've been willing to share with the public.

The 1940s were a time when all Americans united against a common enemy. Given that we once again find ourselves facing a morally-bereft dictator who has shattered world peace, I find these kinds of patriotic songs, songs that show how much we all have in common, simplistic as they may have been, very comforting. And so I made this feel-good music video. I hope you enjoy it!

1943

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 10/9/2026		Page Views: 211
Hashtags: #Music #1940s #USO #BigBand
Songs from an alternate Earth where I was alive in the 1940s, leading a big band on a USO tour.

Given today's dystopian political environment, I can hardly be blamed for looking back to a simpler time when America actually was, not only pretty great, but beloved across the world. (Well, except for Germany and Japan.) In terms of technique and content, this album's a bit of a departure. Instead of digging up old lyrics of my mom's and arranging them as pop tunes (well, okay, I did do one of those here), I invented an alternate Earth—one where I had been born in 1873, and was still alive in 1943, leading a big band on a USO tour instead of showing up decades later as a Boomer with a laptop.